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Madas 20A


Bild: General view of the Madas 20a
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Manufacturer:W. Egli
Type:20A
Year:1951 (construction 1935)
Technology:mechanical stepped drum machine electric engine
Price:RM 3500,- (1935)

At the beginning of the 20th century, one started to ease the work of human "calculation servants" on the mechanical calculation machines by the extension of electric motors. The user didn't have to crank any more, thus pressing a motor-key activated a rotation of the primary shaft. Since about 1925, the manufacturers were able to automate the division and the multiplication, which can be assembled from a series of subtractions, additions and shifting operations. You can say the arithmetical unit, which describes a simple calculation machine, was extended by a microprogram control unit, which can handle more complex operations automatically. It is interesting, that it's more simple to realize a fully automatic division than a full-automatic multiplication. These fully automatic calculation machines were that sensational, so they were called "Super Automatons". The name MADAS is an acronym for Multiplication, Automatic Division, Addition and Subtraction.